Hey, all. Something that's really annoyed me in my quest to assemble the perfect cart at Newegg (for my next build) is locating the warranties offered by different manufacturers for their video cards. This is important to me, and probably a lot of other enthusiasts crafting their next build, because the warranty attached to a video card can often be the reason for selecting one brand/GPU over another brand/GPU. I figured it'd be fantastic if we could all put our heads together, and collaborate in this thread to create a grand repository (that stays up-to-date) with a list of all video card manufacturers and their warranty periods, coverage limits, and small-text conditions.

Then our fellow gerbils, when they and their pocketbooks are yearning for MOAR FPS, can simply come to this thread to quickly check and see brand warranty coverage to help with their purchasing decisions.

List entries will include the following items:

Length:This section will describe the length of the warranty.

Warranty URL:This section will have a manufacturer-made URL containing the warranty terms and conditions. This is mostly for veracity, so that forum lurkers who got here from google can reliably verify that the information on this particular forum post is good information.

Registration:This section will indicate whether or not registration is a required step in redeeming the product's full warranty length/coverage terms. For the most part, "Yes" and "No" should do for this section.

Conditions:This section will describe any outlying factors in a company's warranty that may differ from the usual warranty which may have impact on a prospective buyer's decision.

Any other information that anyone thinks is relevant may be added here.

Ray Wu - NuMedia USA, Inc - Apollo VGA / Aposonic CCTV Surveillance wrote: (19 Jan 2009)"Briefly to answer your inquiry, we do offer Chaintech, Leadtech, Apollo Graphics and Aposonic Products in warranty, and most important friendly tech support. We also handle other competitor’s warranty as well in USA region all depending on annual business agreements between the manufacture and management involved.[...]You can always call us for tech support even if after warranty period on any product questions you may have or technical issues you are having difficult time solving, we will be happy to assist you.[...]Our warranty registration is not needed, our product warranty is all based on customers purchasing receipt. All customer need to do is keep the original receipt (or a printable online receipt), this would be 1 year from purchasing date."

Club3D wrote: (27 Jun 2008)"The warranty period depends on the company where you buy it from, Club3D provides two years of warranty through the distribution channels. In case of bankrupcy of the reseller/supplier, we redirect you to the best optional distributor in your region. In the rare case they are not willing to accept your defective product, we provide two years of warranty, for that Club3D handles a service fee of 35 to 45 Euro depending what country you live in."

Club3D wrote: (27 Jun 2008)"The warranty period depends on the company where you buy it from, Club3D provides two years of warranty through the distribution channels. In case of bankrupcy of the reseller/supplier, we redirect you to the best optional distributor in your region. In the rare case they are not willing to accept your defective product, we provide two years of warranty, for that Club3D handles a service fee of 35 to 45 Euro depending what country you live in."

It appears as though Galaxy has no warranty of it's own, as it claims it is your reseller's responsibility (e.g, Newegg).

Galaxy Microsystems, Ltd. - RMA Policy:"A) Warranty for Galaxy Products remains the responsibility of your reseller where you purchased the Product. Please contact the reseller for the RMA services and procedures in the first place."

Point of View, wrote: (23 Jun 2008)"The normal procedure is to claim warranty by your reseller or distributor, they have the obligation to handle this board under warranty. When they can't for fill there obligation POV we will take over. To obtain an RMA number you have to complete our RMA Request Form with all the information that is required together with a copy of the original invoice [...]When your graphic card is defective, and the reseller is no more , you cansend a mail to rma@pointofview-online.com and we will take over the warranty..."

I had in mind creating a thread exactly like this some day. Good to see someone else ran with my idea . I did the same research some time among a few manufacturers, so I can post these. I contacted the first three manufacturers directly either via e-mail or web forms. For MSI, I checked their website.

Sapphire (AlthonMicro), 2008-06-27 wrote:Sapphire video graphic card has 2 years limited warranty based on the original purchase invoice date by our official distributor/reseller. For any RMA request without original purchase invoice/receipt, the warranty period will be based on the original video card manufacturing date-serial number.

Club3D (European manufacturer), 2008-06-27 wrote:The warranty period depends on the company where you buy it from, Club3D provides two years of warranty through the distribution channels. In case of bankrupcy of the reseller/supplier, we redirect you to the best optional distributor in your region. In the rare case they are not willing to accept your defective product, we provide two years of warranty, for that Club3D handles a service fee of 35 to 45 Euro depending what country you live in.

Point of View (European Manufacturer), 2008-06-23 wrote:The normal procedure is to claim warranty by your reseller or distributor, they have the obligation to handle this board under warranty. When they can't for fill there obligation POV we will take over. To obtain an RMA number you have to complete our RMA Request Form with all the information that is required together with a copy of the original invoice [...]When your graphic card is defective, and the reseller is no more , you cansend a mail to rma@pointofview-online.com and we will take over the warranty

In order to obtain a faster service, MSI encourages customers to obtain service from his/her original vendor. However, should customers have difficulty obtaining service, MSI is always willing to assist all customers to trouble shoot, repair or replace our defective product.

[...]

MSI VGA Products are warranted for 3 year limited warranty (Two (2) years Parts & Labor, and the third Year Parts ONLY, shipping and handling fee will be required).

[...]

Should a product prove to be defective in material or workmanship during the warranty period, MSI will, at its sole option, repair the product or replace with a same or similar product.

Replacement Product may include new, remanufactured, or refurbished product and parts.

MSI will provide one-way freight free of charge via UPS or Fed-x Ground Service when returning the product to the customer.

Amusingly enough, a TR article just hit the frontpage about Diamond's warranty information.

Diamond website wrote:Diamond warrants to the original purchaser of the hardware product, that the product is free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of one (1) year from the date of purchase at retail. All cables and accessories provided with a Diamond product are warranted to be free from defects in materials or workmanship under normal use and service for a period of for (90) ninety days from date of purchase at retail.

Diamond ’s sole obligation under this warranty shall be, at Diamond ’s option, to: (i) repair the defective product or part; (ii) deliver to customer an equivalent product or part to replace the defective product. When a product or part is replaced or exchanged, the item becomes customer’s property and the replaced or exchanged item becomes Diamond ’s property. When a refund or replacement product is given, the defective product becomes Diamond’s property. Replacement parts or products may be new or include serviceable used parts with at least the same functional equivalence to the original product. If, at the time of repair, a product is "out of warranty" or within the last ninety (90) days of the warranty period, Diamond warrants any repair for ninety (90) days. All software provided is subject to the terms of the associated software end-user license agreement. [...]

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(

A_Pickle wrote:Hey, all. Something that's really annoyed me in my quest to assemble the perfect cart at Newegg (for my next build) is locating the warranties offered by different manufacturers for their video cards. This is important to me, and probably a lot of other enthusiasts crafting their next build, because the warranty attached to a video card can often be the reason for selecting one brand/GPU over another brand/GPU.

Just a comment - unless the warranty is particularly short, by the time it expires the card is going to be practically obsolete or at least quite cheap to replace. I wouldn't worry too much about warranty unless buying a very expensive card to keep for a long time (which is a proposition of very questionable value). Just my 2 cents. Useful as a tiebreaker, but don't overvalue warranty.

Oh, an important note: when I contacted those manufacturers, I went in with the specific intention of knowing if the manufacturer itself takes care of my stuff in case the retailer goes titsup (which did indeed happen to me once). As you can see, not every manufacturer has its own RMA service for free.

Though not graphics-card related, I've become a GSkill superfan ever since they exchanged me a pair of DIMMs for new ones, even when I'm in Europe and showing them a Newegg invoice (long story). No questions asked, and their turnaround was superfast, they sent me the new DIMMs via express mail from their Netherlands office.

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(

It may be more prudent make a list of links to the manufacturer's warranty pages, seeing as they've been prone to change a lot recently (especially the fine print).

A_Pickle wrote:Warranty URL:This section will have a manufacturer-made URL containing the warranty terms and conditions. This is mostly for veracity, so that forum lurkers who got here from google can reliably verify that the information on this particular forum post is good information.

mattsteg wrote:

A_Pickle wrote:Hey, all. Something that's really annoyed me in my quest to assemble the perfect cart at Newegg (for my next build) is locating the warranties offered by different manufacturers for their video cards. This is important to me, and probably a lot of other enthusiasts crafting their next build, because the warranty attached to a video card can often be the reason for selecting one brand/GPU over another brand/GPU.

Just a comment - unless the warranty is particularly short, by the time it expires the card is going to be practically obsolete or at least quite cheap to replace. I wouldn't worry too much about warranty unless buying a very expensive card to keep for a long time (which is a proposition of very questionable value). Just my 2 cents. Useful as a tiebreaker, but don't overvalue warranty.

I'd agree with this, but I think it's up to the user to determine what "obsolete" is, and for that, warranties mean very much. An example. My old desktop, a 3.0 GHz P4, 2 GB DDR-400, and a Radeon X800 XL, is still useful to me as a spare LAN computer for the poor unfortunate soul not yet wooed enough by the joys of PC gaming to own one. It plays a lot of games just fine, and so, I keep it dust-free, it's software updated, and it's hardware functioning. If something goes out on that computer, I'd really like not to have to buy a new thing if I don't have to. I'll be making the purchase of my next video card with it's future as a spare LAN box video card in mind -- and for that, warranty means everything.

I like having a pile of spare computer parts, and I like having a pile of spare, warranted computer parts even more.

EDIT: I added a whole bunch of manufacturers, added direct links, and some email response times, as well as the "Transferable" list item. Best tech reference thread ever.

mattsteg wrote: I wouldn't worry too much about warranty unless buying a very expensive card to keep for a long time (which is a proposition of very questionable value). Just my 2 cents. Useful as a tiebreaker, but don't overvalue warranty.

I tend to filter down my old computers or hand them off to family/friends. So for me a lifetime warranty is a huge benefit. It may not be my main video card for a long time, but it will probably get used for a long time in some role or other.

someone mentioned to me that if I want to file a warranty repair with sapphire I would have to pay for overseas shipping to have the product fixed and pay for shipping back? is this true? they dont have a repair/exchange center in the US? and they also charge a handling fee? doesnt that come out to like 80$ to have a 'warranty' fixed?

"Sapphire VGA products carry a 2 year warranty with all enquires carried out through your initial place of purchase. This can only be carried out by the original purchaser. Please contact your Dealer/Reseller for Warranty / RMA service."

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(

from what I understand newegg will only do it within 30 daysafter that you must go through sapphirebut you are saying newegg will do this up to two years? because I heard otherwise and now I am thinking against buying a sapphire product.also i heard newegg had exclusive rights to distribute their products.

Well you got me there, I have no idea. I suppose the next step is to contact Newegg and present them your dilemma. According to several people in the forum, Newegg's customer service is usually pretty helpful.

There is a fixed amount of intelligence on the planet, and the population keeps growing :(

Just wanted to say thanks for this thread as I had no idea XFX had a registration period for their warranty. I hate when companies do that and I could have sworn XFX did not do this. Guess I just didn't read the fine print hard enough.

Zotac has me pissed off too as the booklet that came with my brother's 9600GT said you had to register your product yet Zotac's site was very different from what it was now and there was no (easily locatable) place to locate it. Bah.

I realize this is for video card, perhaps we could have you start one for RAM and other hardware topics *wink wink*

I am in the middle of an RMA with Corsair for ram that i've been using for over 2 years now. Its been great up until 1 of the two sticks of SO-DIMM crapped out with BSODs. Within 1 1/2 days had a response telling me to send the ram back to them... if it checks out they will send me a replacement. I'll keep you up to date... very nice thread, gives a great oversight on the quality and the crappy manufacturers.

PS...... Corsairs website and RMA page is absolutely the best I have ever seen... so damn easy a Cavema...(damn copyrights!)

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

It seems like they have been having trouble fulfilling their warranty obligations lately. I sent in a broken 280GTX more than a month ago and still have not received a proper replacement (they did send me a 9800 series card after about 3 weeks, maybe hoping I wouldn't notice?). There are long threads on some other forums with people having similar issues.

It's probably time to update the BFG entry. They've replied to recent warranty claims with a brief statement that the company is being liquidated and that warranty claims will not and cannot be accepted.

Bye-bye BFG.

This problem was caused by Windows, which was created by Microsoft Corporation.

Just saw this thread and figured I'd add my two bits about eVGA. Not all their cards are lifetime warranty, it depends upon the model number as seen here: http://www.evga.com/support/warranty/ The only cards that have a lifetime warranty are listed under the following "The EVGA limited lifetime warranty is only eligible for part numbers ending in: -A1, -A2, -A3, -A4, -AR, -AX, -CR, -CX, -DX, -FR, -FX, -SG, -SX." This is a big misperception that I see a lot about eVGA, I believe in the past they had lifetime warranty across the board but that stopped at least a few years ago.